The 11th u.s. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that Florida doctors do not have the right to ask patients if they own a gun when the question is unnecessary to a patient’s care.
This ruling is a significant defeat for the gun-ban lobby and its allies. The Florida chapters of the American Academies of Pediatrics and American College of Physicians, along with a number of other groups and individuals backed by the anti-gun community, filed this lawsuit against the State of Florida after Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill backed by the nra in 2011.
In the ruling, the three-judge panel ruled: “In keeping with these traditional codes of conduct—which almost universally mandate respect for patient privacy—the Act simply acknowledges that the practice of good medicine does not require interrogation about irrelevant, private matters. As such, we find that the Act is a legitimate regulation of professional conduct.
The Act simply codifies that good medical care does not require inquiry or record-keeping regarding firearms when unnecessary to a patient’s care.”
nra’s Institute for Legislative Action’s Executive Director Chris W. Cox welcomed the ruling.
“Every gun owner in Florida and across the country is grateful for this common-sense ruling,” Cox said. “It is not a physician’s business whether his or her patient chooses to exercise their fundamental, individual right to own
a firearm.”
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